


A Second Chance

by flipflop_diva



Category: Timeless (TV 2016)
Genre: Do-Over, F/M, Honeymoon, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, Wedding Night, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-28
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:00:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25576975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flipflop_diva/pseuds/flipflop_diva
Summary: Not everyone gets a second chance to make the life you always wanted. But maybe Garcia and Lorena would be luckier than most — if his time-traveling friends have something to do with it.
Relationships: Garcia Flynn/Lorena Flynn
Comments: 5
Kudos: 6
Collections: Just Married Exchange 2020





	A Second Chance

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Omnicat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Omnicat/gifts).



He held the letter in his hand, staring down at it in disbelief.

His mind was racing, the words blurring together. It didn’t make any sense. It wasn’t possible.

He held the letter up closer to his eye, squinting at the black ink that looped and scrolled across the page and down, filling most of it with a wild tale that he could not wrap his mind around.

It _looked_ like his handwriting. But he hadn’t written it. Had he? How could he? He would remember something like that, not to mention that it was just too fantastical. A future version of himself writing him a letter to warn him about some strange shadow group killing the woman he was about to marry and a daughter he didn’t even have yet? And leaving it in the pocket of his tux on his wedding day for him to find?

No, this was some sick joke.

He crumpled up the paper, his hand over the wastebasket in the corner of the room. But then he paused.

Why would someone send this if it weren’t true?

It couldn’t be true. _But what if it were?_

\--

Garcia waited nervously, pacing the room. Back and forth, back and forth. Jiya watched him, but didn’t comment. What could she say that would make a difference anyway?

They had been gone for hours. Too many hours. It was only a note. A wedding. A look around at the guests to make sure there hadn’t been anyone uninvited. 

If Rittenhouse knew what they were trying to do … if Rittenhouse tried to counter them … he barely survived losing his family the first time. He didn’t think there was any way he could survive losing them a second time, even if it was just in the knowledge of another plan gone wrong.

He shook his head, trying to block out the thoughts swirling through his mind. He paced more, concentrating on the shine of his shoes, on the soft taps against the floor, on the number of steps it took to get from one end to the other.

His breathing was just beginning to even out when the sound came, the one he would recognize anywhere. He jumped back, bumping into Jiya, who he didn’t realize had stood up, as the noise got louder and the Lifeboat suddenly appeared.

It felt like an eternity, even though he knew it was mere seconds, before the door swung open and a foot appeared. Wyatt. Then Lucy. Then Rufus.

Their faces were unreadable.

“Well?” he said. “Did it work?”

“We don’t know,” Lucy said. “But yes, we were able to slip the letter into your tuxedo pocket as it was being brought into the church.”

“And I got it?”

“You were very shifty before the ceremony,” Wyatt said. “More than normal. So I’d say yes.”

Garcia let out a little puff of breath. “You saw the ceremony?”

“No one saw us,” Lucy said. “We hid.”

“But you saw the ceremony?”

“Yes,” she answered. “Lorena was beautiful.”

She didn’t have to tell him that. He had been remembering all day. The long sleeve lace dress. The flowers in her hair. The sparkle in her eye when she had smiled at him. So many moments about that day were a blur in his mind — details lost to time — but the way she smiled at him, the way she laughed when he asked her later if she was ready to get out of there, those moments were burned into the retina of his mind’s eye, still as bright and sharp as the day they had happened.

He took another breath now, focusing on the present. “And how will I know if it worked?”

No one answered. Lucy and Wyatt glanced at each other.

“What?” Garcia asked. “What?”

“We don’t know,” Lucy said. “But we think there’s something else we need to do first.”

\--

He almost begged them to let him go. Words pouring out of his mouth. _It’s my fight. They’re my family. I need to see this through._ The same arguments he had once spouted coming back at him, hitting him like a train. _It’s too risky. You can’t be in the same place as yourself; you could make things worse. We know what we’re doing. This can’t be your fight this time. We’re sorry._

And so he had watched them go, looking helplessly at Jiya as the Lifeboat disappeared once again.

“They’ll be back soon,” she said.

He hoped that was true.

\--

It took two days. Two days as he waited for his life to change. He closed his eyes and tried to remember. What their wedding was like. How Lorena had smashed the wedding cake into his face and laughed, her voice melodic, her eyes twinkling. How she had kissed him and slowly licked it off, first off his chin and then his nose and then around his mouth and then his mouth, and how he wrapped his arms around her as the crowd cheered and whooped and hollered.

He remembered that night, too tired to even have sex, too tired to barely do more than strip off their clothes. She laid down beside him in her white slip over her white underwear and cuddled up against him.

“We have all the time in the world for sex,” she said. “I just want to sleep tonight knowing you’re mine.”

He remembered the honeymoon. The walks on the beach. The drinks on the patio overlooking the sunset. The hours in bed as they laughed and talked and made love until the sun was rising.

He remembered when Iris was born. How tiny she was. How much his heart hurt just looking at her.

He remembered fighting monsters and scaring away ghosts. Building forts in the living room and spraying her with a hose.

And he remembered the night he lost them.

He fell asleep, his face damp with tears.

\--

He was pacing again, his shoes wearing thin against the floor. Jiya was pretending again it didn’t bother her.

And then there they were, standing before him.

“Did it work?” he asked. “Did it work?”

“We think it worked,” Lucy said.

“But how will we know?”

A paper was shoved into his hand. He looked up into Jiya’s face.

“That’s your address,” she said. “If it worked, they’ll be there.”

\--

She looked at him like he was crazy.

“Honey, what are you talking about? Nothing you’re saying makes any sense. Iris and I aren’t dead. We are as alive as you are.”

“Now you are,” he said, and he felt tears flood his eyes again. Lorena looked at him worriedly.

“I think you’ve been working too hard,” she said.

He took him to meet everyone. She watched the Lifeboat take off, and she watched it come back. She gaped at him in disbelief.

“How can this be?” she said.

“It’s a long story,” Lucy said. “But it’s true.”

\--

He moved them into the bunker with him and everyone else. It was safer, they all agreed. Rittenhouse would know what they did, and they might come after Lorena and Iris in this timeline.

“When this is over,” he said to Lorena one night, their daughter asleep on the couch beside them. “I want to marry you again. I never thought I would get you back, and now that I have you, I don’t want to lose you.”

“If that’s your way of proposing,” Lorena laughed, “it needs a little work, but yes. Yes, Garcia, I will marry you again.”

She kissed him and laughed. He pulled her into his arms and tried not to cry. 

\--

They re-did their vows in the same place as their original ceremony. Lucy, Wyatt, Rufus and Jiya all came. Iris bought a dress and got her hair done in the same style as her mother’s. 

Garcia and Lorena stood in front of everyone and professed their love. Garcia told her how he never wanted a life apart from her, how he wanted to spend every day showing her how much she meant to him.

Lorena told him she was the luckiest woman in the world for having someone as kind and wonderful as him for a husband, someone who would protect her from everything, even death.

They kissed to seal their union, hands entwined. Iris ran over and hugged them both, and they drew her in too.

“Are you sure we’re safe now?” Lorena asked him that night. Lucy had taken Iris home, so he and Lorena could relive their honeymoon.

“Yes,” he told her. “Rittenhouse is gone. No one is coming after us.”

She pulled off her dress, leaving her in a white bra and panties. She climbed on the bed. “Will you hold me all night long?” she asked. “That’s all I want.”

“I will hold you all night long every night for the rest of my life,” Garcia told her. “That’s all I ever wanted, and all I want now.”

He crawled on to the bed beside her, and she went willingly into his arms. He closed his eyes and savored the feel of her body pressed to his, the smell of her hair in his nose.

His second chance. And this time it was going to last.


End file.
